We were really amazed at this sweater. It’s easily the warmest thing you can wear without resorting to wearing your coat indoors, and is perfect for those of you who save energy through using less heating.

We tried this one out in Dorset, along with Finisterre’s Etobicoke, and it kept us warm through the bitterest winds.

The only thing we’d change is the angle of the pockets, as things tend to fall out if you bend down. Other than that, this sweater is just brilliant. And well worth investing that little bit extra in the price.

Available for both men and women

We tested it in Dorset, where the coastal air feels markedly colder than the breezes in the city. Used as a base layer, the Etobikoke was comfortable, warm and allowed for very easy movement.

It has a fleece-lined collar which is very cosy, and when zipped up the jacket is nicely fitted (which, girls, makes a good change from the usual Michelin Man look). The sleeves are a bit short, but this didn’t matter too much.

The Etobikoke jacket would be very good for campers, as it is light enough to carry in a bag AND it folds into its own pocket, making a lovely pillow!

Available for both men and women

The affectionately titled ‘Reee Chair’, designed by Sprout Design Ltd for Pli, offers both a mix of cutting edge erganomic design with practical comfort. If you enjoy edgy pieces for both home and office, and absolutely can not and will not compromise on your ethics, then this is worthy of some serious consideration. Especially if you hated all those nerdy games consoles when you were younger…

The Reee chair is designed for disassembly and further recycling. The modular design means it’s easily repaired or refurbished. Every chair makes a new home for 2.4kg of used plastic.

For more imformation go to www.plidesign.co.uk

It consists of a hat, mitts, jingle-ball toy and shawl, and is beautifully packaged in a cardboard box (finished off with fabric ribbon).

The cotton used in the set is organic and uses no synthetic dyes: all colours you see naturally occur – meaning the cotton is as gentle as it gets.

We were really impressed when we got this in the office; the cotton feels extremely soft and you can really tell the quality, not to mention it’s all extremely cute!

Highly recommended!

They have possibly the biggest collections of regional compilations we have ever seen. With albums ranging from World Reggae to Acoustic French Folk to Louisiana Blues, the choice is truly outstanding!

Having listened to quite a few of their selection, we have to say that we’re very impressed: the sheer talent of the musicians is unbelievable, not to mention the obvious passion which comes through their music.

Putumayo regularly supports NGOs in the areas where the music originates, which means purchasing these albums has a direct positive impact for countries all over the world.

Devil’s Dyke was a natural site for the festival. Not only did it form a natural amphitheatre for the main stage, the chalk ground also meant that although it didn’t lack the trademark UK festival rain, while this would usually have campers up to their armpits in mud, there was barely a squelch.

When you live in Brighton it seems like every other person is in a band, enough for the festival to warrant the ‘Brighton Stage’, with local talents such as Figital and Maths Class playing. The organisers also attracted big names including Fun Lovin’ Criminals, De La Soul and Terry Callier, and there was the typical festival dilemma of who to see, with The Magic Numbers and Rosin Murphy clashing. We caught a bit of both and The Magic Numbers were a great crowd pleaser, but Murphy was the definitive act of the festival.

Bank Holiday Monday eked out the festival to a fourth day, but with stage acts finishing at an earlier 9pm it appeared many festival-goers decided to go home in the morning. Those who did stick it out huddled together in the drizzle and were kept upbeat by Horace Andy & the Dub Asante, and then José González delivered what was for many, a chilled end to the festival – before being returned home by the Big Lemon, a local bus company that runs its vehicles on used cooking oil.

Organisers didn’t just pay lip service to the green prerequisites; the commitment was evident throughout the site. From the just-for-fun pedal-powered smoothie makers in the kids’ field, to the essential recycling bins, which were always close to hand and never overflowing. And the food was fantastic, you could feed yourself well on organic, locally sourced food for a fiver, without feeling ripped off.

It’s definitely one to watch in the future. Organisers haven’t quite got it nailed first time but its all stuff that can quite easily be put right in time for next year. A quick site re-jiggle would solve the lopsidedness of it – pretty much everything was on one side of the site, and there needed to be lots more loos – and essentially more people. Despite selling out its 10,000 tickets the site felt like it needed filling out, and organisers agree, already planning to increase capacity to 15,000 next year.

The size of the event means it will remain a fringe festival but if organisers build on this successful first year it has the potential to rival larger national festivals in reputation. 

Now, normally I’m not a fan of white chocolate: I find it a bit too sweet. However, the strawberry pieces in this bar complement the sweetness perfectly, turning this bar into an explosion of taste! 
When it comes to chocolate, Divine really does live up to its name – and with the safe knowledge that their chocolate is Fair Trade, I urge you to try this one out.

Divine is launching the White Chocolate with Strawberries bar as part of its 10th Birthday celebrations and it will initially be available at Oxfam stores nationwide and to purchase online at www.ethicalsuperstore.com and www.traidcraftshop.co.uk

Leaving the site on the morning after the three nights before, Worthy Farm was strewn with tents, wellies, countless compostable beers cups and goodness knows what else, but first signs are that this year’s clear up went ‘fantastically well’ according to litter manager, Robert Kearle. With the help of 1,200 volunteers and 17,000 sorting bins, 95 per cent of the rubbish was cleared up by last weekend.

A lot less mud meant there were a lot less wellies left behind than in 2007, but still plenty of lost and abandoned tents, as green intentions and three day benders often don’t go hand-in-hand. Prepared for this, organisers partnered up with ECT Recycling to improve on 2005’s 50% recycling rate, and have the left over tents and wellies delivered to the ‘Frip Ethique’ project in Senegal for re-use, where 40 staff are employed under ethical working conditions to sort and bale second-hand clothing for onward sale to local market traders. ‘They won’t get shipped out and made into something else. They’ll be used by people in Africa to wear again, which is great,’ said festival founder Michael Eavis.

Other green steps included reducing the number of cars on site, with increasing numbers car-sharing or using the festival buses laid on by National Express and local groups, including the Brighton Peace and Environment Centre (BPEC), which ran some of its coaches on used vegetable oil.

The Greenfields were the hub of the eco-spirit, with solar showers, quite necessary if you were also indulging in the green dating or mass Greenpeace wedding, plenty of great veggie grub, green kids peddling huge, bizarre contraptions around the fields, and a place to chill out.

‘Leave No Trace’ is quite a message to get across to get across to nearly 175,000 people living in the moment but with the measures put in place, before and after the site was surged upon, it looks like the site will be restored for its usual four-legged residents quicker than previous years.

Massage it in to allow your skin to absorb the essential oils, you’ll feel smoothed, but without leaving a greasy film on your skin. Depending on your skin you’ll probably only need to lightly moisturise after using the scrub, making Laughing Bird’s ‘Honey and Shea Butter Body Lotion’ a perfect accompaniment. The lotion sinks in really quickly, which is really convenient in the morning, and the uplifting blend will alert, if not baffle your senses.

The blend includes rooibos, moringa and rose. The rose stands out when you initially pump it out of the bottle, which I wasn’t too sure of as florals aren’t my favourite scent, but once on the skin it became more ‘tangy’ with the citrus ingredients coming through, which was most definitely a good thing. It’s the kind of scent you keep inhaling to try and decipher the tones and work out what it reminds of you of. I came up with ‘sherbert’ although the intricate blend may well remind different people of different things.

Behind these master blends are Mark Thistlewaite and Helen Lowe, who use their wealth of experience as medicinal herbalists and a wealth of natural resources to create the products from their barn in the Welsh countryside.

The full range of natural beauty products is available through Laughing Bird’s site, or through health stores nationwide. Both products are sold for just under a tenner, it’s what I’d expect to pay for a really good scrub, but perhaps a bit more pricey for a lotion. However the price reflects the carefully selected and expertly blended ingredients which soak effortlessly into your skin. Ten pence from the profit of each product sold is donated to ‘Bees for Development’ which promotes good bee husbandry as a means to alleviate poverty.

The handmade organic chocolates are available in six flavours, including ‘Rosemary Caramel’. The bite-sized cubes of cocoa dusted hazelnut pralines, have a distinct rosemary aroma when you open the packet - a flavour our tasters are more accustomed to with savoury dishes - so we had to keep diving back in the box to decide if it works, and the unanimous conclusion was that it does!

The more traditional ‘Caramelised Hazelnut’ encases whole hazelnuts in dark chocolate, and it’s just as well you get a lot in one box as they’re extremely moreish.

The ‘Apricot’ box went down the best with the kids among the taste specialists. The chunky irregular shapes disguise a whole apricot, under a swathe of milk chocolate. Another surprise, as apricot isn’t a flavour that would have made it into my basket before testing it out, and now it most definitely would.

The company has built the Empire up on ethical foundations. The cocoa beans are grown by small cooperatives in Peru. The beans are grown organically, meaning that farmers are not exposed to harmful pesticides and also helps support a more sustainable way of farming.

The nifty boxes are made using card from sustainably managed forests, and the printing inks are vegetable inks, making the chocs a really thoughtful gift for any occassion, or just an excuse for a treat.

The Soil Association certified boxes are available in shops now.